As Leaders in Business, What Is Our Calling?

by John Keyser

“Allow the way to your great work to be guided by your service to others.” ~ Mollie Marti

What is our purpose in life? That is a question that could be discussed for hours and is worthy of our attention. I pose it because I believe how we lead our personal lives has an appropriate bearing on who we are in our business lives.

The foundations of the Ten Commandments are 1) to love our God and 2) to love others as we do ourselves. That is the essence or substance of life for most of us no matter what our religious beliefs. We are called by our faith to be kind, caring and respectful towards others.

How does that principle in our personal lives differ from our business lives?

I maintain it does not! Just as we should care about our fellow man and woman personally, so should we care dearly about our team members and other colleagues in business.

The wonderful spiritual leader and author, Deepak Chopra, in his book, The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success, offers that we must honor others by being present with them, listening with care, and being kind. In fact, he says to always offer a gift upon greeting someone. Sometimes that may mean a physical gift. More often it is the gift of our presence, a warm smile, a friendly handshake, embrace or a kind hello when greeting someone.

Chopra offers that success is not about money or power, as those who are so consumed never have satisfaction. They always want more. Yet, those who find success in their relationships with others can gain great satisfaction by helping others succeed. That is servant leadership – encouraging, mentoring, teaching, coaching others. It takes humility and inner-confidence, that we gain our satisfaction from the growth and success of others. That is leadership!

In our personal lives we are called to be a good citizen, respecting and caring about our fellow women and men. In our business lives we are similarly called to be a good team member, whatever be our position, whether CEO or intern, and that we respect, encourage and help our team members and other colleagues.

I am sure nearly everyone would agree with me about our calling in business, yet why then does the recent Gallup poll of people in business reveal that 85% think they do not have a good boss and more than 70% feel they are not fully engaged in their work?

The reasons are varied. Some managers are insecure, others are caught up in their title, power or compensation. And a great deal of managers are simply too busy. They are spending an inordinate amount of time in meetings and often are more present with their computers and smart phones than they are with their people. It is estimated that senior managers spend from 50% to 75% of their time in meetings.

We must recognize that the bulk of the work of the company is being done outside the executive wing, on the other floors, and not by the CEO and other senior people.

My call to action to those who are senior managers: Get out of meetings, get off your executive wing or floor and walk around, have conversations, even brief conversations, with your people, and ask them:

• How are they doing?
• How can you help them?
• What improvements could be made in your business?
• What do they think should be your priorities?
• What advice do they have for you?

They will appreciate your asking them for their ideas, they want to feel heard and that their ideas matter to you, and you’ll very likely gain a wealth of valuable ideas.

The best ideas are bottom up ideas.

My other call to action is to think about our calling in business, for all of us, whether CEOs or other very senior executives, or up and comers, to recognize that we should be a great teammate and think about what that looks like. It surely means genuinely caring about and helping others learn, grow and succeed.

The best people in business are the givers, not the takers.